IMSAR Jan 1999 Expedition

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This trip was 10 days of total fun climbing all across Colorado. Due to
avalanche danger and bad weather, this trip turned into a climbing
trip with *alot* of driving every night. We went to Ouray, Red
Mountain Pass, Camp Bird Rd, Silverton/Eureka, Cascade Canyon,
Telluride,Ames, Lake City, Wolf Creek, Rocky Mt. National Park, and
Roosevelt National Forest, Lincol Falls, Vail, and Boulder!

This is me topping out on Middle Ames Falls. Usually this climb is
alot taller, but the whole lower part was melted out, and the path
through the canyon was also all melted out. So we just dropped in from
the top for a few quick laps.

After climbing the middle falls, we went to check out the lower
falls. We rapped in to lead this, but it was very wet, and we
got soaked rapping in. Since this was an easy grade 3, we soloed out
quickly and headed for the car in the approaching blizzard..

This is me leading the beginning of ChockStone Chimney. (grade 5)
Normally the chimney is full of ice, but this day we had to crawl
under the chockstone, and there was a new first pitch! (short and
steep too). This is the real first pitch.

This is my climbing partner Scott, rapping off the first pitch of
Chockstone Chimney.

This is a picture looking down Box Canyon, Ouray from the Schoolroom
area on the south end of the canyon. This is where the recent Artic
Wolf Ice Climbing festival was, and you can see the Camp Bird Rd
bridge in the background.

We camped every night on this trip. This was one of our typical dinner
nights, cooking in the dark on the tailgate of my truck. This meal was
while we were still camping at Orvis Hot Springs.

This is breakfast after waking up in the old ghost town of Sherman,
outside of Lake City. This is directly across the pass from Eureka,
further up the Alpine Loop Rd. Course in Jan, we had to do the 4 hours
drive around.

This is 2 climbers on Horsetail Falls, (grade 4) up in Red Mountain
pass between Ouray and Silverton.

Scott does his first lead in 2 years on Pitken Falls (grade 4) near
Vail. We had to posthole through waist deep snow, and soloed the first
few easy (grade 2-3) pitches so we could get done before dark, (we
rapped off in the dark).